Wheeling police have released the dash-cam footage of a pedestrian being hit and killed by officer Preston Robertson. It gives the first real look into what happened. In the early morning hours of September 14, 2014, 20-year-old Fredi Morales was crossing a road when he was struck and killed by Officer Preston Robertson.
In a traffic crash reconstruction report completed in February by the Major Crash Assistance Team, investigators determined that the collision was unavoidable because Robertson did not have enough time or distance to react to Morales running across the road. Why didn’t the officer have time to stop? As it turns out, that same report found that Robertson's SUV was likely going faster than 100 mph just before it hit Morales, killing him instantly.
During this ‘chase’, Robertson did not follow proper protocol, or any protocol for that matter. He chose not to turn his emergency lights on, nor did he activate his siren. In fact, he didn’t even call into dispatch about the supposedly speeding vehicle. It’s extremely hard to believe that a veteran officer would not turn on his lights or siren, or even call into dispatch if he was actually ‘chasing’ a suspect. One of the theories being passed around is Robertson was simply performing a 0-60 test, or given the accident report, a 0-100 mph test.
The officer was suspended for 2 months with pay and is now back to work full time. So for violating department policy of no lights/siren and killing a pedestrian, he gets a paid vacation.
Posted By Abdul